Qadiriyya in Tanzania

Mosque,Zanzibar,Tanzania

The largest brotherhood in Tanzania is Qadiriyya which is divided into many independent branches. The origin of this order is connected to the Somali sheikh Uways bin Muhammed who, having been invited by the sultan, arrived in Zanzibar in the 1880's. Shehu Awesu, as sheikh Uways is called in Swahili, payed several lengthy visits to Zanzibar and initiated many disciples into his order, who afterwards spread the order to the mainland as far as the Congo area.
One of the most renowned khalifs of the Uwaysiyya branch of Qadiriyya was sheikh Zahur bin Muhammed who lived in Tabora between 1894 and 1908 where he laid the foundation stone to the brotherhood by teaching newly converted Moslems the typical Sufi "chanting" feature which in Swahili is called dhikiri (Ar. dhikr = recitation). His successors then officially established the brotherhood in Tabora and started initiating new disciples. Further east in Bagamoyo north of Daressalaam, the Qadiriyya branch, which today is probably the biggest, started its activities in 1905. Under the leadership of khalif Yahya bin Abdallah, of slave origin and generally known as sheikh Ramiya, this brotherhood expanded in the area around Bagamoyo and Tanga and further north. In the west sheikh Ramiya's influence was felt as far as Ujiji at Lake Tanganyika.


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